Why do dvd movies seem fuzzy on my high res 1920x1200 17 inch screen?

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Why do dvd movies seem fuzzy on my high res 1920x1200 17 inch screen?

Why do dvd movies seem fuzzy on my high res 1920x1200 17 inch screen? Pictures taken by my 5Meg digital camera seem many times sharper that commercial dvds on my 17 inch MacBook Pro high resolution screen when computer is set to 1920x1200 resolution. I had hoped that I could see something approaching HD television quality.

Can I play commercial HD dvds on my MacBook Pro and will that improve the picture quality?

MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz, iBook G4 1.2 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 1, 2008 7:36 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 1, 2008 7:57 PM in response to larry11020

Welcome to the Forums!

Well, since standard definition commercial DVDs are the only ones that will play on your MBP's optical drive, and they are *standard definition*, i.e. around 720 x 480, they need to be upscaled to play full screen on your MBP, thus the fuzziness. Your 5 megapixel resolution still camera is something like 2600 x 1900, so it's close to your display resolution (greater, actually) and thus is "crisp". In DVD Player, if you choose Video menu > Normal size, that's the actual native resolution of the DVD.

Only way to not upscale is to use an external Blu Ray drive and high def DVDs (as mentioned above, the internal optical drive will not play high-def DVDs).

Hope this helps...

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Answer 2

Apr 1, 2008 8:16 PM in response to neuroanatomist

1080i is 1920X1080 so only the bluray disks will give you native resolution

-matt

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Answer 3

May 5, 2008 5:04 PM in response to mattathayde

Hey Matt,
The resolution you mentioned is 1080p. 1080i is actually a doubled horizontal interlace of 720p (1337x720).

Easy error,
-Jake

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